Memory Match

— 6 August 2014

From August 5th to 13th Yorkshire play five matches in the Royal London Cup. Two of these games are away – to Northamptonshire and Leicestershire – while Worcestershire come to Headingley and both Essex and Derbyshire visit Scarborough.

The White Rose county have a very good record against Derbyshire and Northamptonshire in limited-overs matches of at least 40 overs duration but each of the other three counties have beaten Yorkshire more times than they have lost to them.

Yorkshire’s first games against four of these opponents in this type of cricket were all in 1969 in the first season of the John Player League. The one exception is Leicestershire; the two counties first met in 1965 in the Gillette Cup at Leicester. Three wickets for Richard Hutton and a half-century for Geoff Boycott helped give the visitors a six-wicket win in the second round of that season’s competition. It was in its third season Yorkshire went on to win the final and claim their first limited-overs trophy.

One of the most exciting games involving one of these five opponents occurred in the early-1980s:

This was a second round match in the NatWest Bank Trophy; each county had not previously played in the 1982 competition having received a first-round bye. The competition was of the 60-overs knock-out variety and was in its second season having replaced the Gillette Cup and taken over the same format.

There were three limited-overs competitions at this time and the two counties had already met earlier in the season in the Benson & Hedges Cup which had a league and knock-out format, the games being 55-overs per side. This game had also been at Headingley and also produced a close finish. Despite half-centuries from Kevin Sharp and Bill Athey and five wickets for Graham Stevenson the visitors managed to overhaul Yorkshire’s total with one over to spare but with only two wickets remaining.

In this second encounter of the summer Yorkshire won the toss and decided to field. Their skipper was Ray Illingworth; although he was into his fourth season as manager he had, exactly three weeks previously and 15 days after his 50th birthday, deposed Chris Old from the captaincy and taken over himself. Even so he must have soon regretted choosing to field because Worcestershire’s openers set off at a rapid rate. New Zealander Glenn Turner struck five early boundaries and played Old so well that the bowler was not trusted to return later in the innings to complete his allocation of overs.

Turner and Mark Scott mounted a stand of 91 and this was followed by Turner and skipper Phil Neale sharing 98 runs together for the second wicket. Paul Jarvis, who had passed his 17th birthday just 15 days previously, was now suffering from the onslaught but at least he was eventually given his full 12 overs even though they cost 80 runs. Turner soon completed a sparking century but was then soon bowled by the occasional medium pace of Geoff Boycott who had been brought on to stem the flow of runs. Ted Hemsley – who spent his winters as a footballer with Sheffield United – also fell to Boycott and three wickets had fallen for just 12 runs. The innings then lost its early momentum and the two spinners – Illingworth and Phil Carrick – both emerged with some credit as did Stevenson; he was the most economical of the home side’s bowlers and, despite opening with Old, conceded only 30 runs from his ten overs. Worcestershire’s total, however, was a challenging one and Yorkshire would have to bat well to take revenge for their earlier defeat.

Yorkshire’s start to their innings could not have been more different to that of Worcestershire’s. John Inchmore, a stalwart fast-medium bowler, soon had Boycott lbw and followed that up with three more wickets to leave the home side in complete disarray at 38 for four. Athey and Jim Love were both clean-bowled and Richard Lumb was caught at the wicket by David Humphries who was not fully fit having had to retire hurt during his team’s innings. Inchmore’s four wickets had, at this stage, cost only 14 runs but Yorkshire were soon saved from further humiliation by rain, which, after two more runs had been added, fell so incessantly that no further play was possible that day.

At this time three days were allocated to knock-out matches so that any intervention by the weather need not shorten the match. In this case, therefore, the two teams returned on the following day.

With Neil Hartley and David Bairstow at the crease, Yorkshire began to respond to the situation in a much more positive manner. The pair took a particular fancy to the bowling of Norman Gifford, the visitors’ only bowler with international experience, but his slow left-arm spin duly made its mark with two wickets in quick succession including that of Hartley for a well-struck 58. Despite a fifth-wicket stand of 95, Yorkshire had now lost six wickets and, with the scoreboard showing 142, were not even halfway to their target.

Old then joined Bairstow and another significant partnership ensued. A crucial turning point occurred when Old was dropped by Neale but Bairstow had no such luck and was dismissed just eight runs short of a century. He and Old had shared 102 runs together – the only century-stand of a high-scoring game. With 43 still needed for victory Stevenson joined Old and Inchmore returned for his final spell. Not only did he did not increase his tally in the wickets column, however, Stevenson struck him for two huge sixes as his side accelerated towards the target which they reached with three balls to spare and with three wickets in hand. Worcestershire had suffered a dramatic and totally unexpected defeat.

Yorkshire went on to win their quarter-final match, against Essex, also at Headingley, by nine wickets (78 not out for Martyn Moxon) but lost in the semi-finals to Warwickshire at Edgbaston by seven wickets, David Smith scoring a century for the home side.

Worcestershire’s 1982 match heroes:

John Inchmore was a Worcestershire stalwart for 14 seasons from 1973 to 1986 during which time his fast-medium bowling brought him almost 800 wickets in first-class and limited-overs matches. A product of the ‘Charlton village’ he was born in Ashington, Northumberland in 1949 and represented his (Minor) County at the age of 17. After his first-class career he played for Wiltshire for just one season and had also spent a winter with Northern Transvaal (1976/77).

Yorkshire also suffered from Inchmore’s skill in 1977 when he took ten wickets in a first-class match for the only time in his career. First-innings figures of eight for 58 in a Championship match at Worcester and match figures of ten for 68 very much helped Worcestershire defeat the White Rose county by the emphatic margin of an innings and 79 runs, the visitors being dismissed for paltry totals of 128 and 72. Twice he took over sixty wickets in a season – in 1976 and 1979. In limited-overs matches his best performance was six for 29 against Lancashire at Old Trafford in a Benson & Hedges Cup match in 1984; although he won the Man of the Match award his efforts were not enough to prevent the hosts winning by three wickets. He took 31 wickets in such games in that season – a haul which was bettered only once in his career.

John Inchmore and Glenn Turner

Glenn Turner was one of New Zealand’s finest-ever batsmen and the only one to score one hundred centuries in first-class cricket. He completed this feat in 1982 with his highest innings in his final season with Worcestershire; he scored 311 not out against local rivals Warwickshire in a Championship match at Worcester. His side totalled 501 for two declared but were unable to force a victory. Turner ended the season with an average of over 90. Turner had begun his career at the age of 17 in the 1964/65 season. He was born in Dunedin and played mainly for Otago although he had one season with Northern Districts in 1976/77. As well as his 103 centuries, his final first-class career total of 34346 runs is also a record for a New Zealander.

At the start of his career Turner was a very defensive batsman with a very sound technique. It was only later that his attacking strokes blossomed and he became a more fluent player and one suited to the demands of limited-overs cricket. He scored a total of over 10,000 runs in more than 300 of such matches; his highest innings came in the very first World Cup in 1975. Playing against East Africa at Edgbaston he batted throughout the sixty overs to score an unbeaten 171 and set the platform for his side’s eventual victory by 181 runs. At the time it was the highest score made in a One-Day International and the record stood for eight years. This game was one of 41 such matches in which Turner represented New Zealand and which he scored over 1500 runs. By con-incidence he also played in exactly the same number of Tests and scored almost 3000 runs. He led his country in ten Test matches and retired from all cricket after the 1983 World Cup.

SOME RECORDS
YORKSHIRE IN ALL LIMITED-OVERS (40-65) MATCHES
Correct to August 4th 2014

Results

Played 945, Yorkshire won 467, lost 437 and tied 4; there were 37 No Result matches and a further 39 matches have been abandoned.